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Battle of Hentoil's Hill
Background Dictator Geckos of the Federation of Rangos, proceeded to name his son, Varagyr, a veteran of the Bandit Lord conflicts, the Lord Protector and leader of the Rangosian army. Varagyr was known to be err perhaps a bit too much towards patience and cautiousness, as he had waited until he had overwhelming force to go on the offensive against the bandit clans. He was also distinctly unambitious, but possessed of a strong strategic mind, and his leadership in the previous campaigns was exemplary. Rangos was able to muster some 15,000 men in a relatively short period, and Varagyr marched south with about 10,000, leaving behind his lieutenant Claus Weighmat with 5,000 men with orders to fortify and raise more troops. Varagyr soon arrived at Garrick, meeting up with the remnants of Slovak's army: a force of around 12,000 men, of which only a third of that number could be counted on to actually fight. Varagyr took stock of the situation, and was shocked to see the extremely dire situation of the Tryrian army. Men were deserting at rapid rates, looting and discipline were commonplace, and quality leadership was nearly nonexistent. He quickly had his professional troops set to work drilling the Tryrians, though he realized that morale would not improve without securing the logistical future of the army. The steady stream of foodstuffs and supplies coming in from the south and west was threatened by the position of Bard's army to the south. In addition, if Bard marched north, he could cut off the Tryrian force at the camps, also numbering about 12,000 but in much better shape, from the main army at Garrick. Varagyr realized that the vital crossroads at the town of Crisshy would have to be held if the Tryrians and Rangosians were to stand a chance. He sent a detachment of 3,000 Rangosians under Commander ___ to hold the crossroads, as well as outriders ordering Onock to march his army east to join them. Meanwhile in the Brunian camps, Bard's army had finished licking its wounds from Mothsville, and were enjoying the fruits of their pillaging. They had outfitted themselves with the arms and armor of the Tryrian casualties, and morale was high. Bard, believing Tryr was on the ropes, sent Snowfire with 500 men back to Brun to gather another army, cross the Noan from the west, and reunite with Bard to destroy the Tryrians for good. This left him with about 13,000 men, which he believed was too few to assault Garrick across the second branch of the Noan. Rather than just sit around and wait for Tryr to regain its strength, he ordered Rossarch to form a small cavalry group that could serve as a reconnaissance force, and raid deeper into Tryrian territory. Rossarch committed to this task with gusto, recruiting some 500 men to the task. In mid-June, Rossarch's first units discovered the Crisshy crossroads as well, and with some further reconnoitering, he came to the same conclusion as Varagyr. He quickly sent this information back to Bard, who was currently accompanying other scouts determining if the southeastern Noan had any fords to cross. As such, Wulroth Ironhand was the highest ranking commander on-hand, who had mostly recovered from his wounds suffered at Mothsville. The extremely aggressive Wulroth quickly put 5,000 men on the march north, and quickly sent more emissaries to Bard himself telling him of the situation. The Rangosian-Tryr forces arrived early in the day on June 21st, and gradually began to make rudimentary fortifications. Wulroth arrived sometime just before sunset, and immediately assaulted, surprising the allies with his ferocity. However, they were able to hold off the Dragonborn in a brief but savage fight. Both sides sent back information to their leaders of the other's presence and rested for the night. Upon hearing of this, Bard spirited himself over to the battlefield with reinforcements. ___ refused to budge an inch, and calmly ordered his men to hold their ground and continue to ship food east. Varagyr arrived soon after the fighting confluded, and led his men in continuing their digging through the night. Detachments from Onock and from Garrick arrived in numbers around 2,000 men, putting the Tryrian-Rangosian strength about on par with the Brunians. The following morning, Wulroth saw the newly constructed fortifications and determined they were not too strong, and just need one hard push to send them running like at Mothsville. He assaulted again, but was forced back again, this time suffering fairly heavy casualties. Evidently the allied lines were stronger than they looked. While directing the retreat, Wulroth was hit with a crossbow bolt in the abdomen, the force of which launched him from his horse and sent him toppling town a small gorge into a nearby stream. He would have drowned there if not for his soldiers quick actions in rescuing their commander, though Wulroth was firmly out of commission. Bard arrived around noontime with about 1,500 exhausted reinforcements, and surveyed the situation. Wulroth's army was badly bloodied, and his own reinforcements were in no shape to fight a pitched battle. Recognizing he was both heavily outnumbered and out-fortified, Bard decided to retreat south, sending Rossarch to perhaps find another way around this bastion. Varagyr, on the other hand, was somewhat intimidated by how aggressively the Dragonborn had assaulted believing that they had many more troops in reserve if such an assault was performed. In addition, reports that Bard himself had arrived on the battlefield unnerved him greatly. To the allies, Bard's mere presence was worth thousands of men in and of himself, and Varagyr was loathe to bring battle to the outnumbered and exhausted dragonborn, though his forces numbered somewhere around 10,000 now to the dragonborn's 5. He satisfied himself with continuing to fortify Crisshy. Upon Onock's arrival, he asked Varagyr if he ought to pursue Bard, to which Varagyr emphatically refused, much to Onock's disappointment. However, the battle was a fairly solid allied victory, and raised morale significantly. Wulroth was sent back to Teraholm to convalesce, with no further full-scale battles waged that year. Bard sunk his claws deeper into the south of Tryr, and the Tryrian-Rangosian forces began to recover from their many losses. Order of Battle [[Brun order of battle Battle of Hentoil's Hill|Brun order of battle]] [[Tryr-Rangos order of battle Battle of Hentoil's Hill|Tryr-Rangos order of battle]] Battle Aftermath